Why Copywork?

[DragonFaerie]

I started doing copywork this school year for a couple of reasons, none of which seem to apply anymore, and now I'm trying to figure out why I'm still doing it. For DD9, it was to have her practice her cursive and to offer a chance for her to learn some little tidbits along the way (interesting facts, motivational quotation, etc.). She is doing just fine with it and actually seems to like what she's learning.

 

DS7 is a different story. He is not a strong reader so copywork for him is literally copying a sequence of letters. He doesn't really "get" anything from the actual text that he is copying. His handwriting has improved to the point that I don't feel he really needs to work on that so much anymore and he is learning cursive (slowly, one letter at a time) as a separate exercise. We do weekly narratives for history and literature and for these, he dictates them to me, I write them, and he copies them. If I were to just have him do these narratives and perhaps write a journal entry or two, would that be sufficient so that we can drop the rote busywork of copying?

[lionfamily1999]

How often do you do copywork? Do you think he's ready for dictation?

 

When we were still doing copywork, we only did it two to three days a week. The idea is to get them strong in the mechanics of writing and slowly letting them move into the realm of holding the idea in their head (dictation) and finally writing it all down themselves. So, it's not all about the handwriting, it's about building a strong writer :D

[Capt_Uhura]

For your DS7, I'd drop the copywork I think. Imagine if someone gave you a letter in Chinese to copy. Would it make any sense to you? WOuld it be more artwork rather than language arts?

 

Now for DD9.... My DS10 doesn't do copywork any longer. He does all dictation, but it serves the same purpose. It imprints good writing onto his brain. We discuss spelling of difficult words. We discuss grammar rules. We might discuss similes or metaphors if one is in the passage. Or we might discuss what a great descriptive passage it is. So for my DS10, it is not about penmanship at all. ALthough, now that he is transitioning to cursive, it does serve that purpose as well. I've not used copywork/dictation as a means to learn quotes or facts rather I use it for instructional purposes. I know many though that use it to learn motivational quotes, verses, memorizing poetry.

 

I would write down what your goals are for using copywork and see if your DD and DS have met those goals. If not, then continue. If so, then stop.

 

Granted, I've only been HSing for 3yrs so take my advice w/ a grain of salt lol and wait for more seasoned folk to answer. :lol:

[DragonFaerie]

I don't really know what the point of copywork is. LOL.. maybe that's the problem. :tongue_smilie:

 

Originally, I thought it was for handwriting and to get a feel for good sentences (punctuation, word choice, etc.). However, neither of my kids are learning from it. So basically, DD uses it to practice cursive but that's really all. She gets writing lessons with her narratives, journal entries and reports. DS does it because I tell him to. And no, he is not ready for dictation. He is not a stronger reader at all and his spelling is atrocious. I use the narratives to help him write, showing him how to rearrange his long, rambling sentences into concise, coherent thoughts. He does fine with holding the thoughts and concepts in his head. His problem is with getting it from his head to the paper. He doesn't have the spelling and grammatical abilities to clearly express himself. He's easily frustrated and overwhelmed when it comes to writing. At this point, I am happy that he is writing legibly and is sort of learning how to read. Maybe I should drop the rote copywork and do more of the narrative exercises instead? I know he's not ready for any formal writing program.

[Tree House Academy]

We do copywork as handwriting and spelling practice. While my ds is not actually spelling the words on his own, he is seeing and copying words that are correctly spelled. However, my ds7 is a really good reader, so he does understand what he is writing as he is writing it.

 

My ds11 does not do copywork. He does studied dictation (this is his spelling).

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I didn't have my children do copywork until they were reading. They did letter formation and practice that I printed from Startwrite.

[Zann]

Copywork builds the skills the child needs in order to be truly creative. When your child copies sentences from "Good Writers" (I believe C.S. Lewis and Lynn Banks where mentioned in WTM) they learn mechanics, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The classical student learns to write by coping great writers.

 

Dictation should start once your child is coping easily, dictation teachs them to have the thought in thier head and then put it on paper. A crucial stage in moving to writing original works (writing down there own Narrations for example.)

 

I hope this is helpful and must give credit for this knowledge to WTM.

[meet me in paris]

I don't really know what the point of copywork is. LOL.. maybe that's the problem. :tongue_smilie:

 

Originally, I thought it was for handwriting and to get a feel for good sentences (punctuation, word choice, etc.). However, neither of my kids are learning from it. So basically, DD uses it to practice cursive but that's really all. She gets writing lessons with her narratives, journal entries and reports. DS does it because I tell him to. And no, he is not ready for dictation. He is not a stronger reader at all and his spelling is atrocious. I use the narratives to help him write, showing him how to rearrange his long, rambling sentences into concise, coherent thoughts. He does fine with holding the thoughts and concepts in his head. His problem is with getting it from his head to the paper. He doesn't have the spelling and grammatical abilities to clearly express himself. He's easily frustrated and overwhelmed when it comes to writing. At this point, I am happy that he is writing legibly and is sort of learning how to read. Maybe I should drop the rote copywork and do more of the narrative exercises instead? I know he's not ready for any formal writing program.

My kids didn't get too much out of copywork until I started adding in dictation. We do the same passage as copywork on Mon & Tues, then we do it as dictation on Wed. and sometimes again on Thursday if they make a lot of mistakes. When they have to *remember* what to do, it all starts to click. Where do I put those quotation marks? Where does that comma go? Is this where the new paragraph begins? I've seen a huge gain in their writing mechanics since I started that with them this year (and we still have a long way to go, so we're gonna keep chugging at it).